IN passing a judgment that will merely impact the remainder of Hasim Rahman’s life, Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum made a rather remarkable admission in Manhattan Federal District Court last week.

“I know nothing about boxing,” Judge Cederbaum said.

She then voided an agreement that would have paid the heavyweight champion $15 million for two relatively easy fights, ordering him to figh a much tougher bout for a mere $3.15 million.

Rahman could comply with the ruling. Or, he could sit on the sidelines, growing older and fatter and poorer, for the next 18 months.

Needless to say, Judge Cederbaum – a woman who values words on a contract more than the human beings bound by them – should have learned everything she could about the sport and the business of boxing before making such a ruling.

But failing to have done that, there is a reasonable alternative.

All she needs to know about boxing – and about why it was so important for Hasim Rahman to maximize his income and minimize his risks – is on display right now in the Critical Care Unit of Bellevue Hospital.

One visit to the room of Beethavean Scottland would have taught her two things:

One, boxing is very dangerous.

Two, other than their fists, boxers have absolutely nothing, and no one, to protect them.

Not the referee, nor the doctors, nor the managers who are supposed to be safeguarding their interests, nor the promoters who cut a healthy slice of a fighter’s money.

Not even the federal judges, who are supposed to sort out right from wrong.

A ringside physician might have been able to save Scottland from the catastrophic injuries he suffered at the hands of George Khalid Jones on the deck of the Intrepid last Tuesday.

However, the ringside doctor, Rufus Saddler, never saw fit to visit Scottland’s corner to check on the status of his mental facilities, not even after a brutal seventh round.

And even though Dr. Barry Jordan, the chief neurologist for the New York State Athletic Commission, clearly recognized that Scottland was in trouble and informed referee Arthur Mercante Jr., he wouldn’t stop the fight himself for fear of overstepping his bounds.

Mercante, too, failed to protect Scottland, in a well-intentioned but tragic attempt to give a fighter every chance to win the fight.

Now, Scottland lies in a deep coma from which it will take a miracle for him to emerge.

Unlike Judge Cederbaum, Hasim Rahman knew all about the kinds of things that can happen to a man in a boxing ring.

The surprise conqueror of Lennox Lewis knew that even in this four-champions-to-a-weight-class era, world titles were difficult to win and even harder to retain.

He also knew that when things got rough, he could rely on no one else for help.

That is why he spurned his former promoter, Cedric Kushner, to sign a two-fight deal with Don King.

Giving Rahman little chance to defeat Lewis, Kushner had failed to protect his own investment or his relationship with the fighters, leaving the kind of opening King never fails to slither through.

King’s deal was $5 million to fight Brien Nielsen in Beijing on Aug. 4, then another $10 million to fight the winner of the John Ruiz-Evander Holyfield fight for the undisputed title.

Even after King played bait-and-switch with him, subbing David Izon for Nielsen, it was still a better deal than fighting a rematch with Lewis, for which Rahman had a contract that paid just $3.15 million.

After all, Rahman was likely to win both King bouts, and could then entertain challenges from Lewis and/or Mike Tyson with the added leverage of being the only heavyweight champion of the world.

If you are a fighter and you understand the risks, it was a no-brainer.

But now comes a federal judge who admits she doesn’t know the first thing about boxing – “but I do know contracts” – who sides with the lawyers and the promoters and the TV executives, the soft ones whose idea of a fight is flinging harsh words around a boardroom or a courtroom.

Those people don’t need her protection, and they don’t deserve the money that boxers fight and sweat and bleed and sometimes die for.

And if Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum doesn’t understand that, there is an injured man lying in a room in Bellevue Hospital, his brain destroyed by a sport that offers no protection to anyone.

Beethavean Scottland could explain it all to her, without saying a word.